Image-Line Deckadance: The DJ App/Plug-in To End All DJ Apps ?

The creators of Fruity Loops aka FL Studio (Image Line software) have just announced a new DJ application called DeckaDance, and this thing looks like the answers to our prayers. We here at CDM love applications that don’t tie you into a specific controller/hardware/control vinyl solution. DeckaDance seems to have everything we’ve ever wanted in a DJ application, and not only does it support several different types of control vinyl, it actually has a learn mode to adapt itself to new types! Add the fact that it’s a VST host capable of hosting both effects AND instruments, and is capable of operating as a VST plugin as well, and I think we have something that will truly change the face of DJing (unlike some other recent products). Here’s a run-down of some of the more notable features:

Most surprisingly, it says that a Mac / Audio Units version is planned, in addition to the current Windows version. With the availability of Image-Line’s Poizone and Toxic III soft synths for OS X, perhaps it’s not as big a surprise as it would have been a few years ago, but it’s nice to see ImageLine pushing forward with multiple OS support (I’m guessing that a Linux/Jack port is further down the line :-).

The only glaring omission I see so far is a lack of support for FLAC files (although it does support MP3, WAV and Ogg), but I’m sure we’ll see that in a future version. No release date has been set, although Image-Line says it’s coming “real soon”. If the performance aspect is there, and if this thing has a similarly powerful workflow and rock-solid stability like it’s sequencer brethren Fruity Loops, I think Traktor (and DJ Decks, and Torq, and everything else) is in for some serious competition.

Ed.: This is just the sort of thing we’ve been waiting for. A full-featured DJ plug-in that works inside other apps means you can add DJ sets to your existing live sets, scratch during a performance … the lines between DJing and performance continue to blur. And an open DJ app could finally free the full-time DJs from reliance on hardware/software platforms, at just the right moment as Final Scratch customers got burned by the Native Instruments – Stanton divorce. We’ll watch this closely, for sure. -PK

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